Effect of Dilution of Treated Distillery Effluent (TDE) on Soil Properties and Yield of Sugarcane

Abstract

Sugarcane isone of the most important cash crops, which plays a pivotal role inIndia’s agricultural and industrial economy. The treateddistillery effluent (TDE) being plant originated, contains all plant nutrientsand organic matter. Therefore, it is being used as a cheap source of nutrientsand organic manure in agriculture activities in soil besides improving soilphysical properties. Theexperiment was conducted during August, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 with CO 86032 in a randomized block design withsix treatments and was replicated four times. The TDE was discharged @ 1.00,0.50, 0.33, 0.25 and 0.20 lakh liters·ha-1 to get the dilutions of 1:10,1:20, 1:30, 1:40 and 1:50 dilutions respectively. It was applied four times at40 days interval starting from 45th day after planting. The fertilizers viz., N and P @ 75 percent of therecommended dose were applied and K was skipped. The results revealed thatirrigation with TDE at 1:10 dilution resulted in higher yield of sugarcane. TheTDE did not have any influence on quality parameters of sugarcane. The TDEapplication favourably influenced the available nutrients and organic carboncontent in the soil. Besides, the present findings credibly proved that the TDEapplication not only enhanced the soil fertility status but also substitutedfor 25 percent of N and P and 100 percent of K fertilizers to sugarcane crop.